2018 Wheelwright Prize

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the 2018 cycle of the Wheelwright Prize, an open international competition that awards $100,000 to a talented early-career architect to support travel-based research. The 2018 Wheelwright Prize is now accepting applications; the deadline for submissions is Sunday, January 14, 2018. This annual prize is dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement.

The Wheelwright Prize is open to emerging architects practicing anywhere in the world. The primary eligibility requirement is that applicants must have received a degree from a professionally accredited architecture program in the past 15 years. An affiliation to the GSD is not required. Applicants are asked to submit a portfolio, a research proposal, and a travel itinerary that takes them outside their country of residence. Finalists will be asked to travel to the GSD for finalist presentations on March 5, 2018.

In 2013, Harvard GSD reconfigured the Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, which was established in 1935 in memory of Wheelwright, Class of 1887. Intended to encourage the study of architecture outside the United States at a time when international travel was difficult, the award was available only to GSD alumni; past fellows have included Paul Rudolph, Eliot Noyes, William Wurster, Christopher Tunnard, I. M. Pei, Farès el-Dahdah, Adele Santos, and Linda Pollak.

Winners of the prize since 2013 are:

• 2017, Samuel Bravo, Santiago (BArch 2009, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile) for his proposal to examine traditional architectures and informal settlements, revisiting the subject of “architecture without architects”
• 2016, Anna Puigjaner, Barcelona (BArch 2004, MArch 2008, and Ph.D. 2014, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona-Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) for her proposal to study exemplars of collective housing in Brazil, Sweden, Russia, Korea, and elsewhere
• 2015, Erik L’Heureux, Singapore (BArch 1996, Washington University in St. Louis, and MArch 2000, Princeton University), for his proposal to study architecture in five dense cities in the equatorial zone. (L'Heureux presented his research as part of the GSD’s Fall 2017 lecture series; click here for a link to L'Heureux's lecture.)
• 2014, Jose M. Ahedo, Barcelona (BArch 2005, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de la Universitat de Catalunya), for his research on the architecture and organization of structures related to animal farming. Ahedo presented his research as part of the GSD’s Fall 2016 lecture series (click here for a link to Ahedo’s lecture).
• 2013, Gia Wolff, Brooklyn (MArch 2008, Harvard GSD), for her study of the spectacular, temporary, urban-scale float structures that transform Rio de Janeiro during carnival. Wolff presented her research as part of the GSD’s Spring 2015 lecture series (click here for a link to Wolff’s lecture).

An international jury will be announced in January 2018. In addition to Wheelwright Prize Organizing Committee members Dean Mostafavi and Professors K. Michael Hays and Jorge Silvetti, previous juries included the following: Gordon Gill, Mariana Ibañez, and Gia Wolff (2017 jury); Rafael Moneo, Kiel Moe, Jeannie Kim, Benjamin Prosky, and Eva Franch i Gilabert (2016 jury); Craig Evan Barton, Preston Scott Cohen, Sarah Herda, and Elisa Silva (2015 jury); Iñaki Ábalos, Sílvia Benedito, Pedro Gadanho, Linda Pollak, and Shohei Shigematsu (2014 jury); Yung Ho Chang, Farès el-Dahdah, Farshid Moussavi, and Zoe Ryan (2013 jury). 

Applicants will be judged on the quality of their design work, scholarly accomplishments, originality or persuasiveness of the research proposal, and evidence of ability to fulfill the proposed project. Applications are accepted online only, at wheelwrightprize.org. Finalists MUST be available to travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for finalist presentations on March 5, 2018, at the GSD. A winner will be named in Spring 2018.

For information regarding Wheelwright Prize application and administration, please contact:  [email protected]